Along an assembly line, diapers and various types of other disposable absorbent articles may be assembled by adding components to and otherwise modifying advancing, continuous webs of material. Webs of material and component parts used to manufacture diapers may include: backsheets, topsheets, absorbent cores, front and/or back ears, fastener components, and various types of elastic webs and components such as leg elastics, barrier leg cuff elastics, and waist elastics. In some processes, graphics are printed on individual components and/or continuous webs of material used to assemble the absorbent articles.
Some consumers may prefer purchasing absorbent articles, such as diapers, having a number of different graphic designs printed thereon and provided in a single package. Further, some consumers may prefer purchasing diapers having customized graphics printed thereon. Various methods and apparatuses can be used to print different graphics on an advancing web of material used in the manufacture of absorbent articles. However, such methods and apparatuses may provide for limited numbers of different printed graphics, graphics with relatively low quality print, and/or require relatively low print and/or manufacture speeds. In addition, such methods and apparatuses may also require relatively expensive processes and equipment and may not be very flexible in allowing a user to change the type of graphics to be printed.
Thus, ink jet or some other type of non-contact printing may be used to print customized graphics, because of the relatively high degree of flexibility provided to easily change the graphics that are being printed. Because of the relatively slow speed associated with such non-contact printing techniques, custom graphics may be printed “off-line” on substrates prior to assembly of absorbent articles. The substrates having the custom graphics may then be utilized in a relatively high speed converting process to assemble customized absorbent products. In some instances, it may be desirable to manufacture customized articles in series with non-customized absorbent articles, which may present various challenges. For example, it may be difficult to efficiently and effectively segregate customized articles from non-customized articles when such articles are manufactured at relatively high speeds.